City College of S.F. executive pay policy causes furor

The special trustee for City College of San Francisco is expected to approve an executive pay policy Thursday, but faculty leaders say they are still angry about what they've been calling Salary Gate.

In an effort to bring the college into compliance with accreditation standards, Robert Agrella, the state-appointed special trustee who replaced the elected board last summer, and Chancellor Art Tyler have created an executive salary schedule that they hope will pass muster with auditors from the California State Teachers Retirement System.

"There are people who are not on a salary schedule because they negotiate a contract," Tyler said. "That's pretty standard" at other colleges and universities.

Yet it's a huge change for City College.

By 2012, experienced administrators had been pared to skeletal levels, and an accrediting commission blamed the lack of leadership for putting the college in disarray. The commission is poised to revoke the school's accreditation next summer, although that action is on hold pending trial.

Salary Gate erupted in late January when an early version of the new salary schedule appeared to give a 19 percent raise to vice chancellors and associate vice chancellors. Meanwhile, salaries for faculty and other administrators were cut by 4 percent.

Agrella, the sole decision-maker at the college, withdrew the resolution and called it a mistake as faculty protested.

Days later, responding to a Chronicle inquiry, college officials disclosed that their three vice chancellors, all hired since July, were being paid between $202,000 and $217,150 - more than the top rate of $191,518 on the salary schedule to be approved.

Faculty were furious at the apparent secrecy. Public colleges and universities run by elected boards must reveal executive compensation when the contracts are approved. But City College's board was sidelined in July.

Tyler said the college will no longer neglect public-disclosure requirements.

"Whenever we hire anyone from now on, we will state their title and their pay," he said.

Yet faculty members say Salary Gate isn't over.

"We feel deceived," said Alisa Messer, president of the faculty union. "We think this is unacceptable that they're secretly hiring people at exorbitant rates. Whether or not other colleges do it, this is a huge departure for City College."

The vice chancellors were hired during bitter contract negotiations between the college and its faculty.

"It's not clear to me that faculty would have said yes to the contract had we known that these exorbitant salaries were happening at the same moment," Messer said.

Calling it a "Salary Gate Action," faculty activists say they plan to gather Thursday afternoon at Agrella's office at the Ocean Avenue campus to protest the new pay plan.